Endoscopes have attained great acceptance within the medical community since they provide a means for performing procedures with minimal patient trauma while enabling the physician to view the internal anatomy of the patient. Over the years, numerous endoscopes have been developed and categorized according to specific applications, such as cystoscopy, colonoscopy, laparoscopy, upper GI endoscopy and others. Endoscopes may be inserted into the body's natural orifices or through an incision in the skin.
An endoscope is usually an elongated tubular shaft, rigid or flexible, having a video camera or a fiber optic lens assembly at its distal end. The shaft is connected to a handle which sometimes includes an ocular for direct viewing. Viewing is also usually possible via an external screen. Various surgical tools may be inserted through a working channel in the endoscope for performing different surgical procedures.
Endoscopes, such as colonoscopes, that are currently being used, typically have a front camera for viewing the internal organ, such as the colon, an illuminator, a fluid injector for cleaning the camera lens and sometimes also the illuminator, and a working channel for insertion of surgical tools, for example, for removing polyps found in the colon. Often, endoscopes also have fluid injectors (“jet”) for cleaning a body cavity, such as the colon, into which they are inserted. The illuminators commonly used are fiber optics which transmit light, generated remotely, to the endoscope tip section. The use of light-emitting diodes (LEDs) for illumination is also known.
Among the disadvantages of such endoscopes are their limited field of view and their complicated packing of all the required elements, such as electronics and fiber optics together with fluid carrying elements, in the small sized endoscope tip section. Another problem with existing endoscopes is the difficult assembling of the gentle electronic components, which are often damaged by the assembling process itself. Another problem with existing endoscopes is the complicated sealing of the parts, specifically in the tip section of the endoscope. Sealing of the tip section remains a challenge particularly due to the complex environment in which the endoscope is intended to operate.
There is thus a need in the art for endoscopes, such as colonoscopes, that allow a broader field of view and also enable efficient packing, assembling and sealing of all necessary elements in the tip section while maintaining their function.